Who shut up the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb, when I made the clouds its garment and wrapped it in thick darkness, when I fixed limits for it and set its doors and bars in place, when I said, “This far you may come and no farther; here is where your proud waves halt”? 

Job 38:8-11(NIV)

The ocean is my favorite part of nature.  I love to watch the rhythmic movement of the waves, hear the sound of them rolling into shore or crashing on rocks.  The waters have a vastness that seems wild and free, yet it is restrained by God’s command, the boundaries He set.

How can I trust that God’s boundaries for the ocean will hold?  How can I walk by the edge of the water, and not be afraid that a boundary will give way and I will be swallowed up?   It is by faith in the One who created the seas and determined how deep and wide they would be, by faith in the One who spoke that they might come so far and no farther.

Such is how we must trust God with the problems and perils of our lives.  Sometimes it seems trials go on forever, pile one upon another.  We begin to ask if God has forgotten us when relief is slow to come.

It helps to think of the ocean and how God has it in control.  Just as He limits the oceans’ reach, He limits how much His children go through.  We don’t always understand our tribulations, but God has said He uses all things for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28).  We must place our trust in that word from God.  We must trust that the same One who created the boundaries for the seas, created limits for how much happens to us.  We must trust that all will have its place in forming us for eternal life.

The men were amazed and asked, “What kind of man is this?  Even the winds and the waves obey him!” Matthew 8:27 (NIV)